Imprison
by MixItUp
Summary: In the summer before her freshman year at UC Sunnydale, a strange encounter precedes a journey that could change everything Buffy knows. S/B; in-progress.
1. Prologue

IMPRISON: _Prologue_

* * *

In the summer before her freshman year at UC Sunnydale, a strange encounter precedes a journey that could change everything Buffy knows...

* * *

The streets of Sunnydale were quiet that night.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Buffy sang quietly to herself as she walked through Restfield cemetery, loosely gripping her stake in one hand. As usual, it had been an uneventful summer, with nothing more in the way of baddies than some fledgling vamps and one very polite demon who wanted directions to L.A. A good Slayer should be proud or at least content, satisfied with the work she had done in May and prepared for whatever new evil would come in September.

But Buffy was restless. When she slept, she dreamed of Angel coming back or turning bad or dying horribly all alone in the city. When she could not sleep, she worried about her upcoming freshman year. It was a sucky situation all around, and she was more than ready for the summer to finally be over. Maybe in the fall she would be too preoccupied with studies and slaying to worry about Angel.

_Right, and all of the vampires will start picking daisies and singing in the rain_, she thought bitterly.

How was she supposed to work off her frustrations and worries when all the creatures of the night seemed to have taken the night off? In a fit of immaturity, she kicked the ground and collapsed onto a tombstone. She stared into the foreboding darkness, hating how she could almost imagine that Angel was just beyond that tree. He could come back, admit that he was wrong. She would hear a slight sound and there he would be, brooding and beautiful and hers again.

Hey. She did hear a slight sound.

Buffy turned, trying to locate the source of the noise. Her eyes scanned the area expertly. There was a flash of movement, something bright in the suffocating darkness of the cemetery. Her fingers tightened around the stake.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" said an amused voice a few feet behind her.

As she turned to face him, she almost let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's _you_."

There Spike stood (or rather, leaned against one of the crypts), looking exactly like he had a few months ago when she saw him last. He did seem a little less drunk, though. Still, same blinding hair, same flashing blue eyes, same cocky stance, and the same annoying grin. The familiarity was almost comforting.

She would never admit to it, but she was kind of happy to see him. He could be just the right amount of trouble for her night, and the perfect punching bag for her frustrations. _Plus, better the evil you know and stuff. _

He was staring her down; trying to intimidate her, Buffy assumed. She crossed her arms, hoping he could not tell she was itching for a fight. Knowing Spike, he would leave just to piss her off. "What do you want?" she asked with as much hostility as she could muster.

Spike frowned slightly, like she was making fun of him. "What do I want, Slayer?" he repeated coldly, stalking closer to her. She swallowed, trying to fend off her body's fight-or-flight response. Those blue eyes were boring through her in a strange way, and she was a little confused. Sure, Spike was usually into the whole banter aspect of the fighting, but he was usually more invested in the actual fighting. He had a perfect opening to end this game and go after her.

Of course, she would be ready.

She was a little reluctant to openly start something herself, though. The last time she had fought him for real had been before their truce of necessity, and even though he had clearly broken the truce by returning (twice), some honorable part of her hesitated to start a conflict. "I thought my question was pretty clear," she said, meeting his gaze boldly.

"I want," he said, slowly and deliberately. Then his eyes widened. "Get down, Slayer!"

"What?"

Before she could register the booming sound echoing through the cemetery, the vampire had tackled her to the ground. Buffy tensed and struggled to push him away from her side. She sat up, gasping from the adrenaline and shock, only to be shocked again.

The ground where she had been standing before was gone. What she had heard had been like an earthquake, but no earthquake could have caused this particular devastation. The ground had not caved in; it was simply gone completely, and in its place was a yawning hole that crackled with mystical energy.

"What the hell did you do?" she demanded, glaring at Spike. "Is this one of your sick plans? Trying to get your ex back again?"

He could have been faking the surprise in his eyes, but why would he? "I've got no bloody idea why that happened, Slayer, so don't you go blaming it on me. Probably someone after you, trying to take the Slayer out." Spike was pissed off now, and that muscle in his jaw popped out as he snapped, "And you're welcome for saving your life!"

Ignoring his comment, she stood up and cautiously approached the hole. There was no discernible bottom, and although it looked different than the one she had sent Angel through a year before, she felt like it was safe to call it a portal. _Who would do this? Who could do this? _She was not exactly a magic whiz - _ha, puns _\- but she could tell this was powerful. That booming, earthquake-like noise continued to sound, and the portal seemed to pulse. She shuddered.

"Nasty piece of work," Spike commented, almost in her ear. "Would hate to – "

She rolled her eyes and turned around. "What?"

Spike was gone. A split-second after she realized that, she saw the cause. Another identical portal had formed just a foot or two away from where she was standing, and this one was spreading.

Buffy tried to scramble away, but her exit was cut off by the rapidly expanding portal. As the ground fell away from her feet, she thought, _Well, I guess tonight stopped being boring._

Then everything became dizzying and dark, and she lost consciousness.


	2. Day One

IMPRISON

* * *

_Previously: _While out patrolling, Buffy runs into Spike. He refuses to tell her what he wants, but the question becomes pointless when both of them are swallowed up into a mysterious portal.

* * *

_Day One_

Buffy's journey back into consciousness was not like waking up in the usual sense; it was more like sliding down a hill and being unable to stop. She became increasingly more alarmed as details flooded back to her thoughts. The night. Spike. The portal.

Wherever the hell she was now.

She opened her eyes and sat up, breathing a sigh of relief. _No major injuries_. She rolled her shoulders. Soreness, she could deal with. None of her bones were broken or muscles pulled.

This place, whatever it was, was a desert. Was this another hell dimension, like the one Angel had been in? The sun was hot – it had to be mid-afternoon here – but not unreasonably so. Not exactly a place of eternal torment by her judgment, although she might die of thirst.

The sand beneath her fingers seemed normal. Maybe she was still on Earth after all, and the portal was just a really uncomfortable method of transportation. Had she been brought here for a reason? A sudden choking sense of dread filled her; it could be an orchestration of the Council. This seemed like their style, using mystical portals and a lack of communication to scare you into compliance. Maybe they had decided to get rid of a Slayer who no longer followed their orders.

Buffy stood, feeling extremely alone in the expanse of sand. There was no civilization that she could see or hear. _Nobody to hear me scream. Great._

She wondered about what kind of demons might lurk in the desert. There could be giant sand worms with sharp teeth. Or maybe cactus demons. _Are those a thing?_ And here she was, relatively unarmed and unprepared.

With those thoughts, it was no wonder that she almost cried out when she did hear a sound behind her. When she turned, her breath caught in her throat and she stared in shock at the source of the noise.

Spike was there, lying on the sand. His eyelids fluttered, but he was obviously asleep.

He growled. _And dreaming, apparently_.

Buffy looked back up at the sky and down at Spike again, as if he would suddenly have enough exposure and burst into flames. Instead, he rested in relative serenity, completely unaffected by the sunlight. "Well, Toto, I guess we're not on Earth anymore," she said to herself, sighing. _Unless the portal magically made Spike human or something…nah, too far-fetched._

She stood, contemplating. She had no idea where they were. So far, he was the only previously living thing she had seen, and she was not naïve enough to expect this desert to be safe from threats. If she could trust him, he could be a useful ally.

_Okay, pros and _cons. He _had_ held up his end of the truce agreement while Angelus was alive, but then he had gone back on it later and kidnapped her friends. Did that break even? He was a good fighter, pro, but he could use that to kill her, con.

He had not managed to kill her yet. Pro.

Spike was impulsive, but he did have some self-control. He would not kill her if he needed her to keep him alive, and he too would have to sleep. He could probably be killed by whatever monsters could be found in Sand World. If they had each other's backs, their chances to get out alive would definitely improve.

Plus, he was like a hundred years old, so he had to know some tips about staying alive (or, in his case, undead).

Buffy had almost convinced herself to wake him up when his dream seemed to take a turn for the worse. His peaceful human features transformed into his vampire face, and she instinctively took a step back and felt for her stake. Glancing around, she saw it half-buried in the sand and picked it up, feeling immediately safer.

_I can't trust him_, she resolved. She was better off on her own. Spike was a loose cannon, and he would probably love nothing more than to get his third Slayer on the books.

She held the stake tighter, wondering. Spike was still growling quietly and looked pained through his twisted features. Something like pity filled her.

By all logic, she should kill him. He was a dangerous enemy, and she could not afford any more. He already knew her scent, and could track her easily if the mood struck him. Besides, if they were the only Earth beings here, he would be starving for blood.

She remembered, against her will, him approaching her last year to help her. It had always made her uncomfortable how he displayed his love for Drusilla; love that should not be possible for a soulless vampire. The way he cared for her was undeniable.

The vampire was beginning to quiet. His human features slowly returned and his breathing became more even, barely resembling the monster he had been only a minute before.

Buffy had seen the way Spike was heartbroken when Drusilla left him. It was impossible to feel real sympathy for a soulless vampire, but she did feel a twinge of something like empathy remembering his behavior. She could recall that hollow, desperate look in his eyes, like he would do anything – _anything _– to have her back. She felt the same way now, without Angel.

Quietly, she tucked the stake into her pocket, and with one last glance at the sleeping vampire, she walked away.

Within an hour, she found that the land was not entirely flat. Rocks jutted up out of the landscape, and she could see what looked like mountains in the distance. They appeared as hard and unforgiving as the rest of the terrain, but there could be a cave or crevice hidden in them that she could use for shelter. The desert was too wide and indefensible for sleeping.

She was also beginning to worry about food for herself. So far, she had not seen any animals, and the only plants were nearly-dead things sticking up in the rockier areas. Buffy was not used to being hungry, but she suspected that her Slayer-enhanced metabolism would not be helpful. _Plus, I'm pretty much a city girl. I probably know hundreds of demon species by sight but I have no idea what I can eat that isn't poisonous. Assuming there is anything in this place that isn't poisonous to humans._

Just before nightfall, she reached the foot of the mountains. The ground here was richer and more fertile, and what looked like reddish grass covered most of the area between the mountains and the desert. As she had hoped, there was a small cave nestled between two jutting rocks. Buffy entered cautiously.

"Anybody home?" she asked. Her voice barely echoed, and she could see most of the cave in the last strains of sunlight. She felt around to the back walls of the cave, just in case. Then, suddenly exhausted, she took off her jacket and laid herself down for a night of rest.


	3. Day Two

IMPRISON

* * *

_Previously: _Buffy wakes up in a strange land and leaves before a sleeping Spike knows she is there.

* * *

_Day Two_

Waking up cranky, exhausted, and hungry was nothing new for Buffy. It was part of the gig; staying up late and missing meals were just part and parcel with the Slayer package. Normally, though, at least she got to wake up cranky, exhausted, and hungry inside in her own bed.

Discovery #1 of this adventure: no amount of positive thinking could make a rock become a comfortable pillow.

Buffy groaned softly and sat up. It was definitely morning, but she had never learned to tell exactly how early. That is, assuming Earth hours even applied here. She squinted. _Maybe…nine? It feels like nine._

She had tossed and turned for hours before finally passing out some time before the first light. In fact, she would have stayed in "bed" longer if Mother Nature had not called so loudly. Buffy began her trek to a less rocky area that she could use as a bathroom.

_Beheading demons with my bare hands, I can handle, but peeing outside still squicks me out. _

As soon as she had taken care of that particular need, her stomach chimed in with a loud and angry growl. Buffy closed her eyes in frustration. Maybe she should have found Spike after all and battled it out with him. If they were lucky, neither of them would survive and she could avoid dying of starvation. At least she had found a stream during her other bathroom break in the night, so dying of thirst was out.

There seemed to be more green things growing near the foot of the mountain. She walked around the side, trying not to lose track of where her cave was. About fifteen minutes after the cave was out of sight, she found some pinkish berries growing in a little patch between some of the larger rocks. It took another few minutes to climb up where she could reach them, but as soon as she could get her hands on them she began to devour them.

After she had eaten as many as she could stomach, she stuffed a double handful into her jacket pockets. Gourmet, they were not, but hopefully she would survive.

She heard a noise, and immediately regretted that last thought.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be coming from around the next curve. Buffy crouched behind the larger rock, hoping and praying that the unknown beast was passing through and not looking for delicious human flesh. The steps and rustles became louder.

When the thing came into sight, she almost gasped. Years of training her instincts were the only reason she managed to quiet her initial "Holy aliens, Batman!" response. The creature was large, easily seven feet, and stood on six legs. Its long, graceful neck led up to a head more piggish in nature than anything else. She could see its teeth glistening with saliva below its ugly snout, and its fantastic horns were a similar shade of yellow. To top it all off, the whole thing was a pale, almost minty green.

_Maybe it's a peaceful demon pig bug alien_, Buffy thought sarcastically.

As if reading her thoughts, Snouty turned its big head towards her hiding place. Nostrils flaring, the creature grunted and began to climb up to where she was. Buffy rose and assumed full Slayer-stance.

Sometimes she found her small frame and innocent appearance to be an advantage, but when she was marooned in a foreign dimension with a stake as her only weapon against a towering and many-legged foe, she kind of wished she was a little more intimidating. At least she had worn her boots.

Buffy swung her leg around for a kick when Snouty was in close range. It stumbled, but not before scratching most of her leg with those long, sharp horns. She gritted her teeth and aimed her stake for one of Snouty's glaring eyes. The creature was faster than it looked, and her momentum carried her forward and down to the less treacherous ground surrounding the mountain.

Her height was now a serious disadvantage. She leveled a few powerful punches at the creature's silky side as she escaped being gored by its horns, but without a real weapon the fight was mismatched. On a good day, she could have taken it down easily, but she was already winded and Snouty seemed to have no end of stamina.

Buffy was seriously considering a tactical retreat when she heard a loud yell and saw a black-clad figure tumble down onto the thing's back. _Spike_.

He was holding onto its neck for dear unlife as it bucked, but he seemed to be having a good time. Taking advantage of the creature's distraction, Buffy climbed back up a few feet to find a suitable stone and chucked it forcefully at the creature's large head.

It went down hard, and Spike stumbled away, still grinning. "Now that's the way to start off the day!" he crowed triumphantly, examining the prone body. Bluish-black blood was streaming from the wound; if the creature had survived the impact, the blood loss would surely do him in. Buffy let out a sigh of relief and climbed back down to safety before addressing the still-swaggering bane of her existence.

"What the hell do you think we're doing?"

Spike looked taken aback, and almost offended. "Someone got up on the wrong side, I see. No 'thank you, Spike, for saving my life – again'."

"Because I didn't ask you to," Buffy said firmly. "And I didn't need you to."

"Oh yeah? What was your plan then?" He took a step towards her.

"A strategic retreat," she replied with as just dignity as she could muster. Her leg was really starting to hurt, so she sat down on the nearest stone and sighed. "Just – leave me alone, Spike."

In that moment, she couldn't decide what she regretted more: not allying herself with him earlier or not killing him. As usual, he seemed unfazed by her obvious dislike.

"Hey, I wasn't just coming to your rescue out of the evilness of my heart," he said conversationally, taking a seat on the same stone. She glared at him, then, feeling uncomfortable at how close their faces were, she looked back down at her leg. "Was kinda hoping we could get another truce on the books. For old times' sake."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

Spike shrugged. "Haven't killed you yet, yeah? Nor you me. And we don't have much to gain from hurting each other now."

"Really?" She looked back at him and met his intense gaze. "So you're saying you don't want to, say, wait till I'm asleep and then get your hands on that tasty Slayer blood you're always bragging about?"

That seemed to get to him a little, and for once, the vampire was left speechless. After a second, he gave her a sad little smile and a sigh. "I'd love to, pet. But here's why I wouldn't. Nobody back on Earth gives a bloody damn about whether I live or die. Nobody's going to come looking for me or miss me. You, missy – you'll have the whole search team out for you and all of the Scoobies staying up all night researching."

He gestured to the wide desert before them. "I don't fancy living here for eternity. If I'm with you, my chances of getting home shoot way up. And I don't expect I'd last long if the Scoobies try to pull you out and they get me and your bloody corpse, so it's in my best interest to keep you alive and well."

_That…is almost logical._ She hated that weird creeping feeling she always got when Spike was making sense. Something was definitely wrong with the universe if she was going along with this. He could easily have made those reasons up. The whole situation could be his insane, convoluted plan!

"If it helps, I've found some food you should be able to eat. Beats whatever berries or leaves you must have found around here."

Buffy turned her head so quickly she was surprised she didn't break it. "I'm in."


	4. Day Three

IMPRISON

_Previously: _Buffy decides to ally herself with Spike after he explains his reasons and promises her food.

* * *

_Day Three_

She woke up feeling considerably better than she had the day before. The greatest contribution to her new-and-improved mood was probably the addition of actual food-like substances. Maybe blackened alien rabbit would never be her favorite food, but it felt better in her stomach than berries - or nothing.

They had agreed to pass the night in shifts. It was strange watching a vampire sleep during the night, like watching a dog walk on two legs. Spike seemed completely unbothered by the change in routine, however, and argued that they would cover more ground if they could spend the daytime traveling. Buffy, frankly, thought it was a gross oversight on the PTB's part that Slayers' night vision was only a little better than that of a normal human.

It was her idea to cover any ground in the first place, though. She had seen farther from her mountain view the day before, and she was pretty sure that grasslands and possibly even woods lay beyond the smaller mountainous region. Buffy hoped that it would be a lot easier to find food and water there.

Having someone to watch her back was – okay, pretty nice. She had dozens of lingering doubts about the wisdom of her choices, mostly supplied by an inner voice that sounded suspiciously like Giles, but barring any weird vampire fits of violence she was safer with Spike than without. And, if he was her enemy, at least she knew where he was, right? _Keep your enemies close…okay, I always thought that was a load of BS, but in this situation it seems kind of reasonable._

Of course, that didn't mean that things were suddenly hunky-dory between them. It was still a little uncomfortable. Buffy sneaked a look at him. "So, how do you like this sun?" she asked, in her most deliberately ditzy voice.

Honestly, she expected Spike to scoff and say something along the lines of, "You're asking me about the weather, pet?" in that condescending tone he often assumed. Instead, his entire face seemed to break into a wide grin, as if the very rays upon his face were making him more human. "It's fabulous, it really is," he said genuinely. "You don't know what it's like, without…livin' like that, fearing the thing that should be giving you life." He swallowed a little and looked away, like he'd said too much.

Buffy, uncertain, said nothing.

Things passed that way for the next few hours. Occasionally one of them would comment, but the conversation was hardly lively. _This is probably the longest we've gone without trying to kill each other, _she thought.

She didn't like it.

So, when the opportunity arose to challenge the silence, she took it. They were long past the desert; the terrain where they were was more of a hilly meadow, although Buffy could see a thick forest ahead.

Spike, long silent, cocked his head at her and raised his eyebrows. "Fancy a bite?"

"Excuse me?" She felt for her stake and whipped it out, not quite threatening but dangerously close. _I really am itching for a fight_, she realized as she steeled herself.

Spike's eyes widened, but instead of backing away, he took a step closer to her. If he had been a human, she would have felt his breath on her neck. "Oh, I'd love to, goldilocks," he purred, covering her hand with his. "You offering?"

That predatory look in his eyes startled her more than his words had, and she immediately jerked her hand out of his reach and pressed the stake to brush his heart region. He growled deeply.

"Don't think I won't do it, Spike," she said firmly.

He looked at her, and the mocking expression in those cold blue eyes only flooded her veins with more fire. "I'd never doubt you, Slayer," he spat, "but unlike you, I can be _civil_ when I want to be. I was talking about a bite of those."

Buffy followed his line of sight to a small group of deer-like animals who, despite their fierce antlers and oversized tails, looked like an easy takedown. She sighed to herself and refused to meet Spike's smirk.

_It's not like he's never tried to kill me before, my reaction was totally reasonable!_

Still, something like guilt propelled her forward. Before she really had a chance to register what she was doing, Buffy was launching herself down the hill at full Slayer speed. She took a deep breath as she hurtled, enjoying the rush of wind against her skin. The animals tried to escape.

She wouldn't really admit it to herself, but it was exhilarating to pursue, to hunt, to kill. It felt like patrolling on a really good night, where she was alone and could go after the vamps like she was meant to. Easily catching up to one of the animals, she grabbed it and swiftly twisted its neck. It went down hard.

Most of the group had fled, but one last deer-thing stood nearby, apparently frozen in fear by her cold-blooded murder of the other animal. Still high on the rush, she threw a high kick at it and brought it to the ground. "Hello, dinner," she said to herself, satisfied.

Slow applause sounded behind her, and Buffy turned quickly to face him. Somehow, in the midst of her weird predator behavior, she had totally forgotten that Spike was there. He had the expected cocky smile on his face, but his eyes seemed almost bright. _He's impressed_.

Well, making a soulless undead serial killer proud didn't exactly top her list of priorities, but she wasn't going to starve tonight.

"Here I was," Spike said with that insufferable grin, "thinkin' you were going to stay all suburban valley girl about killing your food, but I guess the Slayer bit won out." He eyed her speculatively. "Nice going."

Buffy glared. "And there's your mistake, bucko," she said dramatically. "Everyone thinks that there's some big divide between Slayer-Buffy and Regular-Buffy, but if I've learned anything this year, it's that there's just Buffy. And, trust me on this, you don't want to get between her and food."

He quirked an eyebrow, but kept whatever smartass comment he had thought of to himself. "I'll keep that in mind. You gonna help me skin one of these things? Seeing as you're the one who takes her food cooked."

She shoved him. "Gross, Spike. You're going to do that while I find some fresh water."

"How do you know you can trust me?" He shrugged casually. "Could always take what I want and leave."

She could tell that he was looking for some expression of faith, for her to say that she trusted him or knew that he was above that. Instead, she smiled tightly. "I'd kick your ass," Buffy said firmly, and disappeared into the woods.


End file.
